The Victorian golf stoushes that had members swinging and swearing
For a sport bound by etiquette and manners, there have certainly been many swings thrown on Victorian golf courses, and barbs by enraged golfers off it. Here’s some of the worst golf club wars.
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Late American golfing legend Lloyd ‘Mr Icicle’ Mangrum once famously said golf was the only sport where players paid for every mistake, where “every swing counts against you.”
For a sport considered genteel and bound by protocol, etiquette and manners, there have certainly been many swings thrown on the golf course, and barbs by furious golfers off it.
Victoria has also had its fair share of passionate — or enraged — golfers teeing off in clubrooms about other members (or would be ones), and behind closed doors on committees.
There have been stoushes over everything from brown greens, to inappropriate clubroom attire and on-course bad behaviour.
Local councils have also come under fire for their management of public courses.
Here are some of the most memorable Victorian golf club wars of recent times.
‘Are you trying to kill me?’ Oakleigh golf rage: Jan 2024
An amateur golfer said he suffered black eyes and other injuries after being bashed in a golf-rage incident at Oakleigh.
Won Joon Kang, 57, said he was set upon by three golfers who were playing in a group ahead of him after he hit his ball up to the green they had just come off.
The threesome were furious with him for playing too close to them, Mr Kang said.
One yelled: “Are you trying to kill me?”
Mr Kang said the terrifying incident began when he was having a solo hit at the Oakleigh Public Golf Course on January 30, 2024.
When he had to take a phone call on the fourth hole, he stopped and let the group of three pass him.
Mr Kang said shortly after, on the fifth hole, he landed his ball on the green and the group of men in front of him took exception.
But Mr Kang said he waited for the group to clear the hole and made sure they were out of the way before he took his shot.
However, the men accused him of putting them in danger.
“One of the men was shouting,” he said.
“The guy in front of me grabbed my neck and pushed me backwards, so l just tried to defend myself, and to get out of it. I punched instantly.
“(But) he just kept punching my face even though I was wearing glasses. Unfortunately, I failed to defend myself because my carry bag was still hanging behind me.
“A few minutes later, another guy got involved and started punching and pushing me down on the ground so his friend could keep pushing me.
“It lasted more than five minutes.”
The golf club member, who played every Saturday with friends, said he sustained black eyes, severe chest pain and sore ribs, and his nose was “full of blood”.
“The next morning, I found that my eyes got more and more bruised and some huge black dots came from my eyes which caused my eyes to be blind,” he said.
Residents tee off over axed Burnley club trees: April 2024
Red-faced Yarra council bosses admitted they bungled their own planning rules for the Burnley Golf Course redevelopment, which led to the chopping down of mature trees at the public course.
The council fessed up, saying a permit had been required for tree removal under the Heritage Overlay that covered the nine-hole course on Madden Grove.
“Planning is a complex process and we don’t always get it right,’’ it said in a statement.
The stuff-up followed revelations the council also did not conduct an environmental-impact statement for the $2.2m project.
“Apparently only the residents have to comply with the environment requirements in Yarra,’’ resident Paul Jackson said at the time.
Twenty-five trees, all natives, got the axe, leaving the course scattered with stumps and holes.
And trees weren’t the only thing that caused a stoush at Burnley.
In 2021 the council was warned by Transurban it could be forced to pay millions of dollars in compensation due to golf balls flying onto the busy Monash Freeway, and potentially causing crashes.
Dozens of golf ball incidents had been reported in the 13 years leading up to the warning.
Fingal fence for balls: August 2023
Legends Moonah Links hit the news when it was revealed a giant net was planned to protect a single house on the Mornington Peninsula from mis-hit golf balls.
The 12m tall, 24m wide net would wrap around two sides of a Fingal house, overlooking the sixth hole of the golf course.
The local council approved a permit application for a net on golf course land near a home on The Ridge Rd in August 2023, despite fears it could lead to similar protection being requested for hundreds of houses on or near Mornington Peninsula golf courses.
A council report at the time noted the net was needed to reduce insurance risk and the course was in danger of losing its championship status if it had to permanently change the hole to reduce the risk of mis-hit balls.
According to Golf Australia similar issues regarding mis-hit balls and property damage were common around the country, especially in urban areas.
Some courses had even been forced to change holes to meet insurance requirements, it said.
Dan Andrews turfed from Portsea and on the nose elsewhere: Nov 2023
Golf pro turned radio host Mark Allen said Daniel Andrews could be knocked back from golf clubs all along the Mornington Peninsula, after Portsea famously rejected his membership bid.
Allen said he wouldn’t be surprised if clubs across the Mornington Peninsula black-listed the former Victorian Premier from becoming a member.
Angry golfers strongly rebuffed a proposal from property baron Max Beck for the ex-Premier to be considered for membership at Portsea Golf Club, leading Mr Beck to tee off on his fellow members of Portsea for rejecting Mr Andrews.
Allen said Mornington Peninsula locals had “not forgiven” Mr Andrews for enforcing severe Covid restrictions during the pandemic.
“At Sorrento Hotel it (Mr Andrews’ Portsea ban) was the talk of the region,” he told Neil Mitchell on 3AW at the time.
“To the point where not only members from Portsea but members from other clubs were saying that if he’s trying to join anywhere down here, they just will not let him join.”
“Remember one side of the peninsula they were able to play (golf) and get around, the other side of the peninsula, they were not allowed to play.”
Allen is a member at Kingston Health Golf Club where Mr Andrews is also a member.
“Every club is entitled to do what it wants socially,” he said.
“Once there is an overwhelming (consensus), it’s a very easy thing to do to put a black line through their name.
“(Mr Andrews) is a very good golfer. He’s a golf-aholic.”
Richlister Mr Beck — a Portsea Golf Club member who owns a clifftop mansion at Sorrento — is a friend and confidante of Mr Andrews.
“I can’t believe how small-minded people can be,” Mr Beck said.
“It’s just all about a bloke who wants to play golf and enjoy the rest of his life. It’s ridiculous. He’s worked his guts out for the state with his beliefs.
“I’m very disappointed, but we’ll just see whether the (Portsea GC) committee takes into account his political beliefs or his personality and his golfing ability – they are the two things they should be assessing him on.”
Asked if he felt Mr Andrews had been demonised, Mr Beck said: “Oh, 100 per cent. He’s a very nice person. A straight-shooter and a very good golfer. He’s got a handicap of under 10.
“He’s very pleasant to play with. What does his political alliance have to do with golf?”
Portsea Golf Club protocol sees the names of prospective members placed on a notice board for two or three weeks, with the existing membership base given the chance to express approval or disapproval.
Club sources said initial feedback from those aware of Mr Andrews’ interest in becoming a member suggested any formal application was “unlikely”.
Northcote Golf Course ‘brown’ and more: Nov 2023
Golfers accused Darebin Council of wrecking the Northcote public course with a newly created fifth green, which was branded a “brown”.
The hole was also shortened to just 90m and described as unplayable, with some members threatening to leave.
The course was being changed as part of a compromise deal with a lobby group which wanted to “unlock” the nine-hole public course for use as parkland.
But golfers said they had been short-changed and the council had bungled the modifications, amid fears of driving the course out of business.
The new “temporary” green — the fifth hole — was bare in patches and badly mown, with Northcote club president Jim Chahoud describing it as a “disgrace’’.
“They just put a circle in the middle of a fairway,’’ he said.
Darebin council said the course redesign was still a work in progress and that “the hole that has been decommissioned will be redesigned and properly done”, but that did little to appease the angry golfers.
But that wasn’t the only time Northcote Golf Course was the centre of controversy.
A month earlier the Herald Sun reported problems with the course changes, including a chicken wire fence that would have to be removed whenever the sixth tee grass had to be cut.
It led to a meeting with club officials, with claims the talks came to nothing.
The future of the course also came under scrutiny when play stopped during the 2020 lockdowns and the course was used by picnickers and dog walkers, leading to the creation of a local lobby group, which wanted to close the course and turn it into parkland and other community space.
The controversial campaign to “unlock” Northcote golf course was accused of using primary school children for political purposes.
Children as young as prep years were asked to draw their ideas for the space occupied by the nine-hole course.
An activity sheet was distributed by campaigners to five local primary schools asking children what ideas they had for the site. They were collected and given to Darebin council.
However, the map on the activity sheet did not mention the space was currently a golf course.
It also emerged that at least one school was not aware the project had landed on school desks, and ordered for it to be removed.
Diesel’s golf resort dream hits the rough: Dec 2022
Carlton legend Greg ‘Diesel’ Williams became embroiled in a bitter court battle over the swanky Barwon Heads golf course resort he bought into at the end of his stellar football career.
Williams — who has previously revealed he has the devastating brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from repeated concussions during his playing days — also claimed to have “fallen out” with his resort business partners.
Williams had been fighting the resort’s managers Susan and Michael Cook at VCAT over rent allegedly owed for lease of the Barwon Heads Resort at 13th Beach.
The luxury resort is nestled between two premier golf courses in the 13th Beach Golf Links Estate and included apartments, a conference centre, day spa, restaurant and function rooms.
In early 2011, Carlton spruiked Williams’ new business venture on its website saying “together with his devoted wife Mary and a group of real estate associates” Williams had “taken ownership of Barwon Heads Resort at 13th Beach on the southern shores of the idyllic Bellarine Peninsula”.
A year later the AFL trumpeted “Diesel owns and runs a highly-acclaimed golf course and resort” and had proven himself a successful businessman.
A former Geelong and Sydney Swans player and Carlton legend, Williams is a dual Brownlow medallist and four-time all-Australian.
He has said CTE has left him unable to recall life highlights such as the 1995 Blues premiership, in which he kicked five goals and won the Norm Smith Medal.
At the heart of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal dispute was the Cooks’ lease of the resort and whether Williams told them, as they claimed, their rent would not be increased before December 15, 2020, and would remain at $66,852 a year.
The Cooks’ family company, Lismore, was later invoiced for a series of five per cent rent rises over multiple years and sent a Section 146 default notice for rent allegedly owed.
A Section 146 is commonly a precursor to termination of a lease.
Williams told the Herald Sun he had once been close friends with the Cooks but they had grown apart over the years.
VCAT heard the Cooks were “not particularly sophisticated yet very trusting and honest” and that Williams “accepted he had some memory issues after years of playing contact sport”.
Williams told the Herald Sun there had also been a falling out with his business partners in the resort, Ian Robinson and Victor Bulhakow — who were also involved in the VCAT case — and had been “kicked off” as a company director.
Vic golf course screaming, swearing match goes viral: Nov 2022
A screaming match between two players at a Melbourne golf club emerged online, with the wild altercation attracting thousands of views.
The chaotic scene was understood to have unfolded at Cranbourne Golf Club during its annual club tournament, with a disagreement between two players quickly descending into a expletive filled yelling match.
Footage shared to Twitter started with one enraged player marching up to two other men standing on the course.
“Why are there spectators? I don’t mind people watching but why are they on the golf course?” the man says as he approaches.
This immediately set off one of the golfers, a player in a red shirt, who stormed up to the man and told him to walk away before “I knock you the f**k out, c**t”.
The stoush then boiled over and both men began screaming in each other’s faces.
“Come on c**t, I’ll f**king smash you. You’re a f**king idiot,” the man in the red shirt said.
“Go away you d**khead,” the older man screamed back.
“I’ll f**king knock you out,” responded the other man.
“Threaten me with violence? Take the first shot and I will have you sued for assault,” the first man then screamed.
A third man then intervened, asking the older player to explain what was going on, prompting him to reply that the situation was “bulls**t” and point out that the club championships were underway.
The older man began walking away before the man in the red shirt screamed out asking why he was “hitting up on us”.
“I am not hitting up on you,” the man yelled back.
“Well you f**king are when we are there you stupid c**t. You are a f**king idiot,” he responded.
Sam Newman swings at Andrews over Covid golf bans: April 2020
AFL legend Sam Newman staged a passionate protest against bans on playing golf in Victoria as part of its Covid restrictions under former Premier, Dan Andrews.
He darkly joked that: “If (coronavirus) claims me, too bad.”
The TV larrikin, podcaster and former footballer launched a one-man protest on the steps of Parliament House, demanding a meeting with Mr Andrews.
Golf was banned under tough stay-at-home measures in place to contain the spread of Covid, with the ban causing outrage among keen golfers.
“Golf is the most cathartic thing people could do … getting out spiritually, mentally and physically doing something,” Newman said.
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